The Rev. Joanne Sanders

The Rev. Joanne Sanders

Associate Dean for Religious Life

The Rev. Dr. Joanne Sanders, Associate Dean for Religious Life and a priest in the Episcopal Church, came to Stanford in September of 2000. She received a Master of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. (1997-2000). Sanders holds a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) from Seattle University in Seattle, WA, with a focus on interdisciplinary leadership.

Sanders professional background includes previous university experience in college admissions and intercollegiate athletics. She holds a Master of Science degree in Sports Administration (1991) and a B.S. in Physical Education/Secondary Education. (1982) Her educational, research and religious interests explore the integrated connection between religion and sport. Sanders doctoral dissertation, Thresholds of Meaning: Sports and Religion on Campus, includes research on emerging adults and meaning making through intercollegiate athletic participation, as well as engagement with religious and spiritual communities.

Rev. Sanders had the unique opportunity to serve on a 40-member multi-faith chaplain team at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sanders has also collaborated with colleagues across campus on developing courses in Sports and Spirituality, The Athlete and Identity and Gender and Sports: Looking Back, Looking Forward. Other collaborative coursework development has included Spirituality and Non-Violent Social Transformation and Issues in Liberation Theology, for which she and colleagues accompanied students in immersion-learning travel to El Salvador, Central America.

In addition to engaging in the pastoral care of the university in a number of ways, Rev. Sanders provides liturgical leadership for Memorial Church on campus for a variety of religious and other events, including University Public Worship, a weekly service on Sundays at 10 a.m. for the university community and beyond. She also preaches regularly at Memorial Church. Among her other responsibilities is the coordination and development of meditation themed programming in the Windhover contemplative center on campus.

Sanders has contributed to the Journal of College and Character: Bringing Faith to Campus: Religious and Spiritual Space, Time, and Practice at Stanford University (May 2013).

Rev. Sanders is currently a member of the Executive Board for the national Association of College and University Religious Affairs (ACURA) as Vice President/President Elect.

University Public Worship

University Public Worship (UPW) has been a Stanford tradition since Memorial Church was dedicated in 1903. The service is open to anyone, wherever you may be on your spiritual journey.